College town properties: Palo Alto

Continuing the back to school theme, we’re focusing on another popular Bay Area college town: Palo Alto, the home of Stanford University. Palo Alto, like most surrounding cities, is downright expensive. Redfin’s market trend page on Palo Alto notes the July 2011 median list price at $1.297 million. And that is below the median sold price of $1.34 million. Even scarier, their data shows a 101.9% Sale to List percentage, which indicates that many homes are selling above their listing price. Doesn’t seem to be any real estate downturn here…

We’ll be creative anyways and take a look at a few properties that may be of interest.

Given the name, owning a property on Stanford Ave should attract student renters. This duplex is composed of a 2 bedroom, 2 bath front unit with a larger 4 bedroom, 3 bath back unit. The duplex is currently listed at just under $1.4 million. The current owner purchased it back in 2009 for $1.45 million and has dropped the asking price twice, from the original listing price of just under $1.6 million back in May. It seems to have been attractive enough to get into contract twice – in July and early this month, but seems to have fallen out of contract both times. Assuming 20% down and a 4.5% rate, the monthly mortgage comes out to $5675 a month, which boils down to almost $950 a room, which is on the upper end of asking room rental rates on Craigslist for Palo Alto.

Further away, but still in the Palo Alto zip is a two bedroom, one bath condo asking $402,500. The listing is just over 2 weeks old, as the condo was foreclosed upon in mid June. A comparable unit with the same address is asking $425,000, though it has been on the market for over 140 days. The complex sits on busy El Camino Real but this seems to be one of the lower priced condos in Palo Alto. Assuming 20% down and a 4.5% rate, the monthly mortgage comes out to $1623 a month. But, don’t forget the HOA fees of $481 a month. Will a roommate pay $1000?

The next property may look like one of the best prices you can get for a 3 bedroom and still have Palo Alto as your city. In the southern part of the city, it’s not really close to campus, and not really a detached house, but a town house. It’s asking price of $648,888 gets you an attached garage and over 1300 square feet of living space. The kitchen looks updated, with granite counter tops and monthly HOA is $380, which is better than the condo above. Assuming 20% down and a 4.5% rate, the monthly mortgage comes out to $2630 a month.